Gamecube emulation running at half speed

[nwhoooohaaaa]

hey
i tried to play super smash brothers melee (gamecube) on the emulator but it wont run with more than half speed, from 30 up to 50 %.
I applied the config of the performance guide and played around with the cfg myself but nothing changes.

I have a dual core processor 2,2ghz, 2gb ram, more than enough disk space and a nvidia 8800 gts with 640mb. that should far more than suffice the emulation i think...

my settings are in german, but i think one can get the idea:
   

[theSpacec0wboy]

(01-17-2011, 09:13 PM)nwhoooohaaaa Wrote: hey
i tried to play super smash brothers melee (gamecube) on the emulator but it wont run with more than half speed, from 30 up to 50 %.
I applied the config of the performance guide and played around with the cfg myself but nothing changes.

I have a dual core processor 2,2ghz, 2gb ram, more than enough disk space and a nvidia 8800 gts with 640mb. that should far more than suffice the emulation i think...

my settings are in german, but i think one can get the idea:

A PC is only as fast as it's slowest component. In this case what's holding you back is mostly the CPU, a dual core CPU is fine, as dolphin only utilises 2 cores, however it's the clock speed that is the problem. The GPU is ok, but it too is lacking in power. 640mb of VRAM is not a huge amount, considering most modern GPUs have at least 1GB. Your system RAM is not a problem, 2GB is sufficient for what you want to do. If you want to play games at a faster frame rate you need to either overclock your CPU (not recommended unless you are confident doing it or have knowledge in this area) or buy a new CPU with a faster clock speed (2.8Ghz or over is good - I can run most games at a steady 80% at least and some even at a constant 100% with my 2.8Ghz CPU). You also need to look at upgrading your GPU, ideally have 1GB or more of VRAM. Emulation generally needs a lot of computing power, a lot more than an actual console needs, simply because a PC is technically not designed to emulate a console. You may want to also consider upgrading to a 64-bit OS if you are currently running a 32-bit OS as this will provide a major speed boost, as more data can be processed by the system in any given time period.

[dannzen]

Activate:
"Native Mindmaps Laden"
"EFB-Scaled Copy"

Change
"Kopie" - Ram to
"Kopie" - Textur

Deactivate
"CPU-Zugriff aktivieren"
"Formatsänderungen emulieren"
"Audio-Throtthle" (Sound Plugin)

and try revision 6505 its on of the fastest
http://electrodexs.net/Dolphin

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:You also need to look at upgrading your GPU, ideally have 1GB or more of VRAM.

Unless you are running high end pc games at some insane resolution like 2560 x 1600 you do not need more than 512MB of vdram. It's pointless and doesn't get used. I have yet to see a single game on dolphin use more than 256MB of vdram running with a 3x efb scale.

Quote:The GPU is ok, but it too is lacking in power. 640mb of VRAM is not a huge amount, considering most modern GPUs have at least 1GB.

An 8800gts g80 edition is more than powerful to handle dolphin with any internal resolution so long as SSAA and pixel lighting are left off. His cpu is the only component that's lacking.

[hypnotoad]

(01-17-2011, 09:50 PM)theSpacec0wboy Wrote: A PC is only as fast as it's slowest component.

So true. Everything I got is top notch, except vid card, which I cheaped out on. Won't make that mistake again.

Was going to get one of those GTS 450s, but newegg talked me into a GTX 460 with 256-bit GPU, instead of 128-bit. I hope it works for me. On sale for $169, (normally $199), and then $149 after mail-in rebate. And free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127551

I have high hopes. I think it will be great.

[dannzen]

your cpu is the lowest componet
if you play with dolphin...

[hypnotoad]

(01-18-2011, 09:32 PM)dannzen Wrote: your cpu is the lowest componet
if you play with dolphin...

Do you mean your CPU doesn't have to be real expensive for dolphin? Or are you saying the poster needs a better CPU?

I hope mine's good enough. It's the best I could find.
AMD Phenom II X4 970 3.50 GHz
Cost $179

Funny thing, in my old computer, I built 5 years ago, I paid almost $500 for an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz.
The duel cores had just come out, and I wanted the very best. Then less than a year later, the price on those went down to like $100. Then not long after that, they where obsolete, and a much better one was like $50.

---

(01-17-2011, 09:13 PM)nwhoooohaaaa Wrote: I have a dual core processor 2,2ghz, 2gb ram, more than enough disk space and a nvidia 8800 gts with 640mb. that should far more than suffice the emulation i think...

That's probably better hardware than what comes Wii console.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii#Technical_specifications

Quote:Processors:
* CPU: PowerPC-based "Broadway" processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, reportedly† clocked at 729 MHz[119]
* GPU: ATI "Hollywood" GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process,[120] reportedly† clocked at 243 MHz[119]
* "Starlet", part of the Hollywood package: an ARM926EJ-S processor reportedly† clocked at 243 MHz.[121]
Memory:
* 88 MB main memory (24 MB "internal" 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB "external" GDDR3 SDRAM)[122]
* 3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer.

Nothing more than 1 GHz. Less than 100 MB ram, and GPU ram.

Yet, because their software is done right, they can do more with that, than we can with all our high-end hardware, (comparatively high-end).

Am I wrong about this?

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Yet, because their software is done right, they can do more with that, than we can with all our high-end hardware, (comparatively high-end).

Am I wrong about this?

Yes. Very wrong. PC games can achieve things GC/Wii game developers can only dream of. What you have to understand is that we are EMULATING these games. The game itself does not require much processing power or memory. But the process of converting it from software designed for the GC/Wii into software that runs on a PC is extremely taxing. If the games were designed to run natively on a pc and we did not need to emulate them even your worst machines would run them like butter, but that is not the case. Dolphin is an emulator, and that is why it is so taxing on high end hardware, it EMULATES the games.

[hypnotoad]

So, you're saying when the Wii console processes the ROM, it does so with hardware that's hard-coded just to run those games, right?

And there's nothing anyone can do to make this emulator much more efficient?

I remember when I made a Pac-Man game with AutoIt, which is not a language for making such games. It worked great, but it took up 99% of the CPU usage.

[dannzen]

(01-19-2011, 08:33 AM)hypnotoad Wrote: I remember when I made a Pac-Man game with AutoIt, which is not a language for making such games. It worked great, but it took up 99% of the CPU usage.

Because of this...
the cpu is the lowest componet
for Dolphin

(01-19-2011, 08:33 AM)hypnotoad Wrote: And there's nothing anyone can do to make this emulator much more efficient?

The time makes this emulator faster...
with every cleaner revision (not revisions with new features and new bugs)
with every mhz gained